Service: Impact on Value

mlbtheshow · 26 May 2011 at 15:34

A question thats been doing the rounds between friends for a few days.

'X' has a car that has just passed its MOT, it in good nick to look at and things work (ie CD player and that sort of stuff). Driving is fine, but it does have a few advisorys on the MOT mainly to do with brakes.

Now the problem 'X' has is that the car was due a service over 5000 miles ago. Now the reason im asking a question to you guys is, that if he goes into a car lot and looks to hand this in as p/ex on something, would the fact that he has not got the latest service done have a big impact on the value of the car, considering it has a full years MOT?

I know it looks bad and for a private sale its probably one of the worst things to do, but what would a dealer think.

If it has an impact, what % would be lost? As a rough guide, auto trader has these listed at around 4500 at the good end.

Matt82 · 26 May 2011 at 15:52

depends on the age and type of car. sometimes it makes servicing more sensitive

stoofa · 26 May 2011 at 15:59

As above, it all depends on how old the car is and it's make/model.
Recently I was trading in my old Octy vRS on a 56 plate.
It had a full Skoda Service History and I believe that I was given a favourable part-ex price on it because of this.

My brother recently traded-in his 51 plate VW Bora.
Serviced now and again, only had VW servicing for the first year.
However at the age of the car, it's mileage and the overal general value - a full VW Service history really wouldn't have added much if anything to its value.

mlbtheshow · 26 May 2011 at 16:13

05 citroen vtr with 40k or so on the clock.

its in good nick, and would scrub up nice with a valet which i told him to get done anyhow.

so sounds like if he gets offered around 3.5k or so he should toss it in.

bledd · 26 May 2011 at 16:48

Matt82 said:
depends on the age and type of car. sometimes it makes servicing more sensitive

This..

When I bought my DC2, it didn't have service stamps since the guy had owned it (the previous 3 years), but he had oil receipts for every 2k miles and could tell that he had really looked after it.

If it's a Mondeo and has slipped a few k over the service interval, it shouldn't be end of days